I don’t write in a journal everyday, but I have accumulated many entries over the past 50+ years beginning in 1966. Some items evolved into longer works. Among the leftovers little pieces survived. I thought a collection of these with a piece culled from the same date in a past year would make an interesting yearbook. The consistencies and inconsistencies of mind, skipping back and forth across time, provide varied perspectives. It is difficult to remember the context of the past we’ve lived; we also make suppositions about times that predate ourselves.

The few alterations from original drafts were to improve clarity. The worst of my work is not included. There remains enough mediocrity and immaturity to make me feel humble and you feel smart. There are also moments of accidental insight and incidental humor.

Author Stephen Crane referred to his little pieces as pills…apparently they were small and somewhat hard to swallow, but good for you.


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Tuesday, March 23, 2021

Do you suppose

 

March 23, 1971  (I was 26)

 

Do you suppose

everyone prowls around like this-

clandestine chemist

discovering ingredients at every encounter

Each time testing circumstance

with a taste or a swallow

and a lot of waiting eagerly

for the metamorphosis to follow

 

And do you suppose

we all worship within-

kneeling in our sepulchers

to the one true god of self

and chewing our nails the while

with a taste or a swallow

and a lot of waiting eagerly

for some real Messiah to follow

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